74-present
Australia/ Tasmania
Orange Box 72" 1st glider from RCME plans. Loaded with lead and almost killed my mate Goynsey on the lower slopes of Swan Bay Hill. Flown until the dope/tissue could hold no more.

Superb weather on 4 days. Early fog on Sunday made for a 9:45am start but genrally it was ideal. That's 3 yrs in a row that it's been good. Don't mention 2009 (7 rounds flown and almost all in fog).

Key to placing high up in the rankings (I finished mid-table) is a willingness to dork your model in.

Generally they can take a head-on dork but get it wrong and hit a wing tip and you'll incur damaging stress. The other key tip is to run insane landing flap deflection and have a 1800g 4 m model and the dorks then are less violent.

I did 2 dorks and cringed but got the points. I shared a 1000 pointer with Steve Keep. Great flight where I milked a mild 100ft wandering thermal for 5 mins then came in to nail a 99 point landing. My krew were watching and I heard them let out a sigh when I lost the core and stalled only to recover and win. Beating Dave Hobby in that flight with the full-carbon 2.22Kg Xploder that he sold me was nice too ;0) It still has his signature on the wing tip! Thanks big fella.

DLG sucked. I missed a round due to battery probs. My B2 with repaired wing flew well but it took until the very last round for me to work out the launch trim (more reflex and down elevator trim and zooooooom! )

I just need to practice the launch and get familiar with the rules and I'll bury a few halo pilots. Nobody told me you had to land after 5 mins in the last down! I maxed-out and landed on 8 mins while everyone twiddled their thumbs ;0)

Flew the Ceres after the event and the air was still buoyant. Growing to like the Ceres but still need a FOSA Lift to be competitive I reckon.

New arrivals:
Muller Espada RL. The jury is out on this one. Still trimming and thus far I don't like it; too twitchy and astable and doesn't climb. May need ballast to get it to fly at the optimum speeds.

Vikos
Jury says it's a keeper. Flown with 800g fuz ballast and it's sweet off the slope. Need to try it with another 600g then we'll know. Love those Norbert Habe designs. Fun to fly and axial rolls, idiot proof low-speed handling. Just wish it was 3.1m span, was 300g lighter, had rds, had a thinner fuz and I'd use it for F3B.

Despite a winch battery that was pushed to even wind in the line after I'd finished; I had a ball today. Flew the Ellipse 4 which is up for sale...isn't it always the way; threaten to sell a glider and it pulls its socks up and performs.

After some truly flaccid launches with a crosswind the E4 danced with the angels and a couple of interested hawks at 1000ft.

The 2 awesome flights (admittedly at 7pm after the sun had baked the ground all day) made up for the line snags thanks to a pecularly robust weed that has sprouted on the upper slopes of our amazing flat-field at St. Leonards.

The Estrella needs to fly fast in thermal mode. Flew with no ballast but couldn't hook a thermal except for low-down in cruise mode flying fast 20ft off the ground. I flew for 5 mins at that altitude like a glorified HLG.

After fixing the Furio (snapped fuz in 2 places, tailplane pivot, both pushrods, smashed 1 tip) and dialling in the MC-24 I had a great day launching like a demon!

The evo9 was good but the MC-24 is better. I spent AGES working out the evo9 (like 6 mnths) and the MC-24 took 2 weeks with a little guidance from fellow SEAT members, Bruce and Steve.

I now have 4 flight phases, crow with elevator comp dialled in (perfectly..I actually caught the beast! and that's with zero wind) the launch is about 10mm down flap and aileron with a 10% down elevator comp. and the throttle stick has enough travel for a healthy dose of reflex for the zoooooooom.

It zooms to the moon!

As for the speed runs; with 3 mm reflex and no ballast in no wind and no lift conditions it went like a bullet train. I can't wait to try it in summer conditions with ballast.

I might try to couple ailerons and flaps in the speed phase for a bit more purchase in the turns.

I love the Furio! The wing spar is starting to show thru the skin and I've had to add 3 oz of lead in 1 wing tip (to counter the repair I did) so it's a tad heavier but still tracks well.

I wouldn't get another now that the Crossfire is out and the Radical is shaping up well, but if 1 came up 2nd hand I'll grab it!

Renovating house. Sparky arrived this am. to do the electricals on my workshop.

The workshop is a cross between a Northrop Research Lab and my lounge. It's gonna be wicked!

I have a pivotelli to go in, a vac pump system, LCD monitor fed from digital set-top box & internet access. Have to get an engineer in to sign-off on the post removal/ beam reinforcement (there's a rotten support in the middle of the workshop that's going)

And not much flying ;0( The weather hasn't cooperated...this summer in Tassie has been north-north east! It's unflyable.